The United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ) sitting at The Hague, Netherlands, has ordered Israel to ensure its forces do not commit acts of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, in an important development in the crisis Middle East since 7th October.
The ICJ yesterday delivered its ruling on the allegation of genocide on Gaza by Israel as levelled by South Africa.
Following the attack on October 7, 2023, Israel launched a military campaign against Gaza, killing more than 25,000 thousand civilians, a majority of them women and children.
South Africa had dragged Israel before the court, alleging that it stood in violation of the United Nations’ Genocide Convention, signed in 1948 as the world’s response to the holocaust.
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However, the ICJ delivered its ruling on the emergency measures requested by South Africa, asking Israel to take steps to prevent acts of genocide in the Gaza Strip. But the court stopped short of calling for immediate ceasefire, the main request before it by South Africa.
The president of the court, Joan Donoghue, said Israel must “take all measures within its power” to prevent acts that fall within the scope of the genocide convention and must ensure “with immediate effect” that its forces do not commit any of the acts covered by the convention.
The ruling specified that Israel needs to take every measure in its power “to prevent” killing Palestinians, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions that are calculated to bring about the physical destruction in whole or in part of the Palestinian group, and imposing measures intended to prevent the births of Palestinians.
Donoghue added: “The court is also of the view that Israel must take measures within its power to prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to commit genocide in relation to the members of the Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip,”
The US Judge further stated: “The court further considers that Israel must take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”
While the ICJ did not call for an immediate ceasefire as requested by South Africa, it appears to agree with the African nation in this interim ruling, saying that the evidence before it is “sufficient to conclude that at least some” of South Africa’s claims of genocide against Israel “are plausible”.
South Africa has lauded the ruling, however. Reacting to the judgment in a statement yesterday by the Head of Public Diplomacy, Clayson Monyela, South Africa lauded the ruling, describing it as a victory for the international rule of law.
“Today marks a decisive victory for the international rule of law and a significant milestone in the search for justice for the Palestinian people.
“In a landmark ruling, the International Court of Justice has determined that Israel’s actions in Gaza are plausibly genocidal and has indicated provisional measures on that basis. For the implementation of the international rule of law, the decision is a momentous one. South Africa thanks the Court for its swift ruling.
“The United Nations Security Council will now be formally notified of the court’s order, pursuant to Article 41(2) of the court’s statute. The veto power wielded by individual states cannot be permitted to thwart international justice, not least in light of the ever-worsening situation in Gaza, brought about by Israel’s acts and omissions in violation of the Genocide Convention.
The statement added, “Third, States are now on notice of the existence of a serious risk of genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza. They must, therefore, also act independently and immediately to prevent genocide by Israel and to ensure that they are not themselves in violation of the Genocide Convention, including by aiding or assisting in the commission of genocide.
“This necessarily imposes an obligation on all states to cease funding and facilitating Israel’s military actions, which are plausibly genocidal.
“Above all else, the provisional measures are directly binding on Israel, which is required, pursuant to the court’s order and to the Genocide Convention itself, to stop all acts by it that are plausibly genocidal, such as those raised by South Africa in its application and request for the indication of provisional measures.
“There is no credible basis for Israel to continue to claim that its military actions are in full compliance with international law, including the Genocide Convention, having regard to the court’s ruling.
“South Africa sincerely hopes that Israel would not act to frustrate the application of this order, as it has publicly threatened to do, but that it will instead act to comply with it fully as it is bound to do,” the statement noted.
The statement added, “South Africa will continue to act within the institutions of global governance to protect the rights, including the fundamental right to lives of Palestinians in Gaza – which continue to remain at urgent risk, including from Israeli military assault, starvation and disease – and to obtain the fair and equal application of international law to all in the interest of our collective humanity.
“South Africa will continue to do everything within its power to preserve the existence of the Palestinian people as a group to end all acts of apartheid and genocide against the Palestinian people and to walk with them towards the realisation of their collective right to self-determination, for, as Nelson Mandela momentously declared, ‘our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”
Also speaking shortly after the ruling, the South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Naledi Pandor, said that in order for Israel to comply with the legally binding orders of the court, “there would have to be a ceasefire”, she said.
Hamas hails world court’s interim ruling on Gaza
Palestinian Hamas group on Friday welcomed the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) provisional order on the Israeli onslaught on Gaza.
In a statement, the Hamas group said the order issued by the top UN court means “the halt of all forms of [Israeli] aggression on our Palestinian people in Gaza.”
It urged the international community to compel Israel to implement the ICJ ruling and halt its ongoing “genocide crime” against the Palestinians in Gaza.
Also in a statement, Palestine’s permanent representative at the UN, Riyad Mansour called the ICJ order for Israel to take measures to stop genocide in Gaza “historic”.
Similarly, Egypt and Jordan on Friday welcomed an interim ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the genocide case brought to the court by South Africa.
In a statement, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry “stressed the need to respect and implement the decisions of the International Court of Justice as the main judicial body of the United Nations.”
The ministry said that it looks forward to “a ruling of an immediate cease-fire in Gaza by the court as it ruled in similar cases.”
However, Israeli officials, yesterday dismissed the ICJ ruling and accused the court of “antisemitic bias”.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said of the ruling that Israel is committed to upholding international law, as well as defending its people. “The vile attempt to deny Israel this fundamental right [to self-defece] is blatant discrimination against the Jewish state, and it was justly rejected’, he said in a statement, reported by the London-based Guardian newspaper.
Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defence minister, also said that “the international court of justice went above and beyond, when it granted South Africa’s antisemitic request to discuss the claim of genocide in Gaza”.
Meanwhile, the first hearing of a case filed against the US administration alleging its passive involvement in Israel’s genocide in Gaza is set to be heard by a federal court in that country.
The case was filed by a Palestinian human rights group, Al-Haq with two other advocacy groups, naming US President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, in November last year, Aljazeera reported.
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